Getting Started
Right away, you're prompted to go through an orientation demo, which helps you understand how the device works and how you interact with it. Open up Airspace Home, the software launcher for the Leap Motion Controller and the central location for all of your apps, and open up Orientation.

The orientation demo starts with a cloud of sparkles, sort of like a swarm of fireflies, indicating the sensor's observable field. As you wave your hands over the device, the sparkles start to move and change color as you interact with them. The demo lets you play with the firefly cloud for a good while, getting used to waving your hands in the air and getting a feel for the size and shape of the interactive space above the sensor.

After a moment, the action shifts its angle, to give you a chance to play with the depth of the sensors field. The Leap Motion Controller provides more than the 2D tracking we're accustomed to with touch screens, and adds a third dimension to it. Your hand motions are tracked in a hemisphere of space emanating from the device, letting you gesture not just up, down and around, but forward and back.

The second portion of the orientation demo is more detailed hand tracking, displaying two glowing wireframe hands, letting you see just how accurate the device can be as it tracks not just your hands in space but your palms, wrist, and the individual tips of each finger. You also begin to see the limitations of the device, however, as moving one hand under the other causes the top hand to disappearif one hand comes between your other hand and the device, the other will disappear. The sensor can't see through things. This also becomes an issue when you hold your hands at certain angles. Open your hands a certain way, and your fingers disappear.

The third part of orientation is a drawing exercise, which tracks a single fingertip to let you draw on the screen. Using either a single finger or a drawing implement, you can doodle around on the screen, squiggling to your heart's content.

Airspace Store & Apps
Despite the physical necessity of the controller to enable you 3D hand-waving interaction, Leap Motion considers itself at least as much a software platform. Nowhere is this truer than in the Airspace Store, Leap Motion's dedicated app store. With both free and paid apps, available for both Windows and Mac (often both), there is a surprisingly hearty app selection already, with an estimated 80 apps available at launch.

Our reviewer's Airspace account came with several apps already, six pre-selected offerings hand-picked to show of the range of applications available for the device. Included in the app selection were Lotus, a psychedelic experience in hand waving that involves sitar music triggered by hand motion and starts by poking a giant eyeball right in the pupil; Corel Painter Freestyle, a paint application; Deco Sketch, a free form photo manipulation tool (but it's more Paint than Photoshop); Dropchord, which is a dubstep-inflected game; and Boom Ball, which is a 3D game that reimagines Brick Breaker with a paddle and gloved hand to control the ball.

I also downloaded several more apps from the Airspace Store: Flocking (another 3D toy controlling swarms of pixels with your hands); Block 54 (a virtual Jenga tower); Gorogoa (an interactive story); CyberScience Motion (a digital skull that can be dissected and reassembled for learning anatomy); Escape Velocity, where you pilot a starship by tilting and panning your hand; Geco and AeroMIDI (two MIDI music generators that let you craft tunes by waving and gesturing); and a few others in that same vein. With very few exceptions, these apps are all games and toy-like demos, demonstrating novel capabilities offered by the controller but not necessarily offering any productive capability.

The one exception to this was an app called Touchless for Windows (there's a Mac version as well), which lets you use the Leap Motion Controller in your regular Windows environment. This was especially important to find out whether the Leap Motion Controller would have any real impact on my regular computer use. And it did, definitely. It took my regular PC experience, which I've developed over the last 20+ years, and overlaid all of that with an interface defined largely by vagueness, inaccuracy, and tired arms. Switching between windows became a chore that took the better part of a minute. Getting to the Windows 8 Start Screen, which should be a better experience with the device given its touch- and gesture-friendly design, took literally three minutes of frustrated hand waving and air poking.

While there are some very cool things being done with Airspace Apps, this is certainly early days for both the product and the accompanying apps. Developers and users have a way to go as they get their heads around what the Leap Motion Controller can be used for, how it can and should be integrated into their regular computer use, and how to grow beyond games and technical demos.

Brian Westover is an Analyst for the Hardware Team, reviewing laptops, desktops, and storage devices.
As a child, Brian was frequently asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" His answer alternated between...

Automatic Renewal Program: Your subscription will continue without interruption for as long as you wish, unless
you instruct us otherwise. Your subscription will automatically renew at the end of the term unless you authorize
cancellation. Each year, you'll receive a notice and you authorize that your credit/debit card will be charged the
annual subscription rate(s). You may cancel at any time during your subscription and receive a full refund on all
unsent issues. If your credit/debit card or other billing method can not be charged, we will bill you directly instead. Contact Customer Service